Now, that I’ve got a kindergartener, a preschooler, and a baby, I feel like our organization has to become more efficientso that we can keep track of everything (and everyone!).

That’s where command centers come in to help.

But, after looking at so many of them, I felt like none of the examples would really help my family. Yes, they look darling, but I needed a command center that actually works for US!

I came up with this list of questions for myself as I built our command center. I know that if you go through this list, you’ll be able to identify exactly what it is that YOUR family needs in a command center as well.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I started investing in a few organization bins. Have you done this too?

Organization bins will be my answer, I thought!

Nope.

We needed a system, not just a bin.

So, I started to ask myself these questions so that I could build the system that we needed. It turned into a HUGE command center and it has helped a ton.

The Questions You Need to Ask to Make a Command Center that Actually Works

1. What bothers you MOST when you walk in your house?

Every time I walked near our kitchen, I would sigh. A deep, heavy sigh. Because no matter how much I tried, the edge of our counters became a dumping ground for EVERYTHING.

I started to realized that clutter begets more clutter, so I discovered the main culprit: mail, bills, and things to file (like important documents and kids artwork that we want to keep).

With piles of papers there, we couldn’t stop more clutter from being added to the counters.

So, the answer to question #1 for my family was this:

What bothers me when I walk in my house is cluttered kitchen counters.

The first step was creating a space for mail on our command center.

I orginally bought these mail bins to put fake flowers in because I want my house to look like something out of fixer upper, but I quickly realized that I would need them to put mail inside of instead (insert sad face).

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon so that you can find something similar to what we’ve used for our command center! It’s no added cost to you – check out our disclosure policy.

Follow up question: Can a Command Center help with what bothers you?

If not, you’ve got to come up with another solution. But, if it has to do with paper, keys, purses, backpacks, lunches, jackets, etc. then a command center CAN help you. Start with what bothers you the MOST on a daily basis and then head to question #2.

2. What are You Constantly Losing, Looking for, or Misplacing?

For me, this is my keys and my sunglasses. With a command center, this is an easy solution as we were gifted an adorable key hook that we easily added to our command center wall.

Ever have to rush out of the door in the morning? I need these on hand! We plan on adding hooks beneath the kid’s mail bins to help with this.

3. What Comes Home from Your Kids Daily/Weekly?

Backpacks. Lunches. Paperwork.

It is amazing how much comes home from school during the week! When I thought about question #1 (see above), it was not only mail but also my kid’s papers.

We had to give them their own mail slots. This is also a place to keep unfinished artwork, notepads, and their own mail. My kids have learned quickly to put their stuff in their bin – this has been a huge help in keeping clutter off of our counters!!

This is my favorite part of the command center because my husband and I DO NOT use things like google calendar or online schedulers. We forget to check them.

Because our calendars are in our dining room, we get to look over the calendar every morning and night. Plus, we can easily add anything when we remember something. It’s the best solution for us to make sure everyone knows what’s going on during the week and month ahead.

I added the section “Next week we want…” in case there’s any complaints or eye rolls about the meals that I’ve chosen for the week.

Note: Some other examples that I’ve seen of information that families need to have on hand are cell phone numbers, emergency numbers, parent work schedules, kid’s extra curricular activities, list of chores, etc.

What’s the Secret to a Command Center that Actually Helps?

Figure out what is driving you nuts in your house and start building a system to deal with it.

It has taken me months to plan this command center out for our family, but it was worth every moment! Because it works for us!!

Instead of trying to make something look gorgeous, figure out what your family needs and start there.

Then, grow to add more pieces to your command center.

Like adding a potted plant. Somehow those gorgeous flowers do make me feel like I’m on fixer upper after all…

If you love this post, be sure to check out our other posts on how to stay organized as a busy mom.

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About the author

Katie Joiner is a happy work-at-home Mom. When she's not busy saving her cats from the kids and trying to figure out what's for dinner, she can be found taking photos, laughing with her kids, and figuring out whether or not she can sneak in another Starbucks. Kids 7, 4, & baby <1. Come over and say hi at her FB page, @Happilyevermom, or , her favorite spot, Pinterest.

Hi Katie,
Thanks for this article that could just save my life! I will start preparing my own. Where did you buy the material to prepare it?
Where would you put your command center? Kitchen? Entrance?
Have a nice day.

Yes – this command center has saved my life too. 🙂 I LOVE it. Don’t know why it took me so long to put it up. We have ours in the kitchen because that’s where we had the space. I like it there because my husband and I can see the calendars while we’re eating at the table. It’s helpful when we’re chatting or talking about when he needs to leave town for work. I’d recommend that you’d put it a.) Where there’s enough space. and b.) Where you start your day. Since we hang our keys and check the calendar before heading out the door, I think it’s wise to put it somewhere where you’ll see it in the morning! Oh, and in the post, I’ve linked out to a lot of items that are similar to what I purchased on Amazon, but I bought almost all of the containers at Kohl’s and the calendars at Staples, I believe. The key hook was a gift that came through Amazon. Hope that helps!

Super helpful! I love how you had those questions for us to figure out what WE actually need, not just having a pretty yet disfunctional command center. I’ll definitely be asking myself those questions to so I can get some better organization going on! Thanks =)